A show for the fans, not the industry, means more fun stuff to play.

Share this story

Ars' Sam Machkovech tears through as much of PAX West as he can in four days. Edited by Jennifer Hahn.

SEATTLE—Board, card, cosplay, current-gen, handheld, pinball, retro, smartphone, and VR: these are the ABCs of the PAX gaming convention, which now hosts annual events in three American cities (and Melbourne, Australia, to boot). Even though PAX began in the early '00s as a reaction to gaming's sterile, industry-heavy expos, most modern gaming and fan cons now copy its style.

We're fine with that kind of flattery, but PAX still does it best. Its hometown iteration's 13th edition proved to be a whirlwind of happiness over hype. Even though E3's perfectly fine blockbusters dominated the exhibition hall (Battlefield 1 has already had its time in the spotlight), PAX isn't the kind of event that lets you write a "best games at the Con!" list. Still, between the show's freeform, play-how-you-want halls, I got to try out quite a few new-to-me games, which I will highlight below.

To get a taste of the broader four-day PAX West 2016 experience, including snippets of a live D&D game and some great costumes, the video above will serve you well. (It also includes developer chats about a few of the games in the list below.) FYI, we'll have a few more PAX-reveal stories on the site once their embargos lift, so keep it tuned to Ars.

It's dangerous to PAX alone

That's not Zelda-like at all, Sam. You're reading too much into things.

Waking on an ocean shore and heading into adventure? That's nothing like Link's Awakening.

This bulky-looking grass animates in really cool ways as you walk through it.

Secret Legend: This year's PAX seemed to have a different "hey, look, big indies" booth around every corner, with enticing names like the Indie Megabooth, the PAX 10, and PAX Rising. This list includes entries from many of those, but PAX West's big indie kahuna has to be the out-of-nowhere reveal of Secret Legend, a semi-shameless Zelda adventure clone that set tongues wagging thanks to its incredible aesthetic.

The characters and worlds of Secret Legend almost look like they were hand-molded, and its squishy, brilliantly animated little creatures roam a top-down overworld of fantastically painted caves, forests, and ocean shores. Much like the first Zelda game, you wake as a confused adventurer (in this case, a bipedal fox) with a drive to explore. But unlike the first Zelda, you won't even get a prodding in the form of "It is dangerous to go alone." Secret World's language is total, symbol-loaded gibberish. Walk up to a sign, and you'll be told "#@$&*$" and given an arrow. In fact, a few of its signs are hand-drawn (including charming game-instruction doodles), which makes us think that perhaps no Rosetta Stone hides in this quest.

What's more, the entire game was coded, drawn, modeled, and animated by a single person, with additional people chipping in to help with music and promotion. Clever levels, satisfying combat, and a wonderful sense of mystery loom over Secret Legend's head already. We cannot wait to see more of this game, which is currently set for a "2017" launch.

Warcube's awesome mechanics summed up in one sick GIF.

Warcube: I sneak into developer meet-ups around my hometown of Seattle whenever I can, hoping to catch a glimpse of the next big thing. Earlier this year, I got that in the form of Warcube, a charming top-down action game from a developer named Craig Zacok. You've played top-down, mouse-to-attack games before, but Zacok has concocted some brilliant secret sauce in how his game lets players run around and queue up arrow and sword-dash attacks.

Character speed, bright voxel design, and a slick slowdown effect all come together to help players chain together attack combos on lowly, medieval grunts—and feel like badasses in the process. The first time you dash-attack a Warcube foe, then slow time down to nail an arrow attack while bouncing in mid-air off your first attacker, will leave you changed as an action gamer. Warcube is still in the early goings, but hardcore action-adventure PC gamers (read: burnt-out Diablo fan) owe it to themselves to bookmark this rising gem for a future look, whether or not it makes its "2016" release date.

Make friends, hate your friends

Blade Ballet's arena design is top notch.

I love this "avalanche"-themed level; snow falls and obstacles appear from the bottom, but neither the top or bottom elements are too surprising or hard to read.

Such a cool level-linking design here. Simple, clean, and offers some great combat funneling.

Oh, and this stage. The way pieces fall and how you can read what's coming next... so good, y'all.

Blade Ballet:
A stretch of the exhibition hall's sixth floor was dotted with shameless copies of established series like Smash Bros. and Hearthstone. My friends and I called it "the clone section." So I was pleasantly surprised to find a four-player couch-combat game called Blade Ballet there. It actually feels fresh from a mechanical level.

Sure, you can find comparison points, including Smash Bros., Starwhal, and Power Stone, but Blade Ballet is a finely honed stab-your-friends fighting game. It combines unique character types, novel levels, and a solid mix of twitchy mechanics and level-based strategy to makie it feel like one of the deepest games in the genre in years. Your job is to knock out your opponents' shields and deal a fatal blow with your given character's default weapon. You either stab or momentum-swing your weapon to deliver damage, all while being mindful of levels that can turn destructive.

I like how Blade Ballet's levels don't suddenly or randomly disrupt the flow of combat. The game telegraphs what chaos will befall its players without making the screen a noisy, unreadable mess. Players can not only keep track and protect themselves, but they can also work up movement and cornering strategies to dominate their foes. I've always felt like the busiest levels of Smash Bros. fail to get this right. So kudos to Blade Ballet for striking this balance—and with having a satisfying and unique combat system, too.

When Death Squared goes horribly wrong.

Working together to solve.

Death Squared: If we're gonna declare anything as "game of PAX," this is the one. Death Squared delivers the kind of multiplayer puzzle challenges that requires significant trial-and-error in solving while also forcing players to work together and coordinate their twitchy responses. Unique puzzles for 2- and 4-player modes allow multiple sized groups to cooperate (or strangle each other in the process). Players walk and jump around as little, colored squares in a bizarre, otherworldly factory.

Multiplayer-puzzle modes in games like Portal 2 often suffer from what I call "alpha solver syndrome"—one player can bark commands and do all the cerebral work. Death Squared, conversely, requires players to actively move their little squares around and react to constantly changing elements in each of its new levels. While a smarter player can shout directions and orchestrate solutions, the solutions ultimately require all players to stay on their toes and activate level portions independently.

And since the square characters factor into physics-based challenges that I'd rather not spoil in this preview, each level feels distinct. Death Squared rewards experimental and boundary-busting efforts by each cooperating player in a way that I haven't seen in a puzzle game in a while.